These
were two of the many slogans of the Platform against Banco Bilbao
Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) who held a protest in Bilbao on 11 March
2011 Friday between 10.00 and 12.00. The officials of BBVA, who would
hold their Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the Euskalduna Palace, did
not let Akgün İlhan, an activist of the Initiative to Keep
Hasankeyf Alive, to join the AGM by inventing various bureaucratic
excuses. For this reason Jordi Calvo Rufanges, an activist of
Barcelona Peace and Justice group, made a speech in the name of the
Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive talking about the proposed Ilisu
Dam and the destruction it will lead to, and asking BBVA - who
recently bought 25% of the shares of Garantibank, one of the three
financial organisations behind the construction of the controversial
Ilisu project - to withdrew from the Ilisu project. Meanwhile, two
activists of the Platform against BBVA were protesting the
investments by this bank with armament and other social-ecological
destruction projects such as the Ilisu dam by pouring red paint over
themselves symbolizing the blood of the peoples and individuals
suffering from the actions of BBVA. The police immediately handcuffed
and arrested them while the demonstrators of the Platform against
BBVA responded applauding, whistling and chanting slogans ‘your
money is covered with blood!'